The liquid crystal display (“LCD”) is used to convey information in a variety of industries and applications. For example, computers, signs, telephones, televisions, kitchen appliances, vehicle dashboards, aircraft cockpits and innumerable other devices having electronic displays benefit from using an LCD. Various applications require different kinds of displays, and display technology continuously advances to satisfy the needs and improve the performance of displays in old and new applications alike.
Large area LCDs, e.g., in a laptop computer, are widely available but typically expensive. For many applications, the size and price of these large displays is a barrier both in terms of cost and manufacturing. In particular, it is difficult to obtain suitably sized and priced displays for use in the low end general aviation market. Currently, instrument panels for displaying flight information in the cockpit are single data displays of approximately six inches by eight inches and cost on the order of ten thousand dollars each.
It is often desirable to have redundant display hardware for purposes of providing data in the event of a display failure. For example, in the aviation industry, critical data, such as aircraft attitude, altitude, air speed, etc., must be readily available to the pilot at all times. Should one of the display systems fail, a back-up display system must be ready for immediate viewing. In the current setting, constraints such as cost and physical cockpit space create problems for providing the desired back-up display systems in the aviation industry. Moreover, replacing failed large area displays is expensive both in parts costs and repair down-times.
Accordingly, a less expensive alternative to the single data, wide area display is needed. Moreover, a display system having redundancy capabilities without vastly increasing costs is also needed.